Blog (4) Noelle Lyons

As the only two Gospels with an account of Jesus’ birth, Matthew and Luke are critiqued and compared between each other. Their narratives contain similar elements: Mary as a virgin mother, Joseph bringing his family to Bethlehem, and a group of strangers visiting Jesus after witnessing a sign from the Heavens. There are, however, many more differences that encourage biblical scholars to exercise the comparative method of criticism when pertaining to Jesus’ birth narrative.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ genealogy and the birth account is followed soon afterward. Luke’s Gospel, however, begins with an account predicting the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, as Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth while both are pregnant with these two great prophets of God. The birth narrative of John the Baptist follows this story, and then Jesus’ birth narrative is presented. Luke stresses the idea of Jesus as a Prophet throughout his entire Gospel, shown as early as the beginning passages. Jesus must be seen as the Messiah who was prophesied about, who will be treated wholly as a prophet, though he is much greater. The birth narrative in Luke is also very similar to the birth of the prophet Samuel, from which Luke clearly modeled his account. [1]

In both Gospels, Mary’s virginity is made very clear, but for different reasons. Matthew, as appealing to a predominantly Jewish audience, proposes this belief so that it fulfills the words of the prophet Isaiah. Luke, however, proposes Mary’s virginity to stress that Jesus is the Son of God, not of just a human man. [2] Luke wants to present Jesus as a prophet so that he is seen a great messenger of God, with the message of his salvation and of the kingdom of God.

The genealogy account, so prevalent in Matthew since it was told before Jesus’ birth narrative, traces Jesus’ ancestry to Abraham through his father Joseph. Luke also has a genealogy though it has discrepancies from Matthew’s and is traced back to God, showing the Jesus is not only for the Jews, but also the Gentiles. Luke’s genealogy account is also not presented until after Jesus’ baptism. Luke believes Jesus’ genealogy is important, but is not needed for the birth narrative, as he is presenting Jesus as a prophet.

Using a comparative method encourages the reader to understand the different emphases of the Gospel authors. Luke, through his birth narrative, is emphasizing the message to his community that Jesus is a prophet, while Matthew is presenting Jesus to his audience as the Messiah they have been waiting for. With the differences between the birth narratives, why are their elements mixed to create a cohesive birth narrative? Why do we not learn both separately and emphasize the elements at Mass? Do we not know how to reconcile the differences? If we cannot do this in the church, how do we do this individually?

[1] Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004),

132.

[2] Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004),

128.